The stealth of a Great Blue Heron is fun to watch but one must have the patience of Job as these birds are so very slow and steady in their directed strikes.
Any
Is this a composite: No
D800, 28-300 @45mm, f/9, 1/1600, ISO 1000
Standard ACR and Photoshop…a bit of denoising.
Chris, this is a good look at this GBH. The bands of color in the water are very nice, while the orange in it’s beak is a bit of a stretch for red, its well know that each individual sees colors differently.
Now we get into the painterly vs light values in an image. You cannot get a red brown as is seen in the kelp/grasses without a predominance of red, nor orange as is found in the beak, again without a predominance of red, therefore, it meets the parameters quite nicely, me thinks 
